Media in Leogane devastated

Of the 12 radio stations in the city Leogane, south of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, only five are back on the air more than two months after the earthquake. Most stations were seriously damaged and several broadcasters are struggling to restore transmission, the head of the Leogane Press Association (APL), Julmane Saint Fort, told CPJ. Saint Fort said that six radio stations were completely destroyed and five severely damaged while the rest suffered some minor material harm.

The head of APL said that the newsrooms of most stations are
nonoperational. As a result, Saint Fort said, there are no daily news editions.
Radio stations that are back on the air are only broadcasting music, he said.

In addition to Amicale FM’s Yves
Adler, whose collarbone was severely fractured in the January 12
earthquake, APL reported that another journalist was injured in the city during
the natural disaster. Michel Presume, the director of TV station Tele Foyer, which
was destroyed in the quake, is recovering from injuries to his legs.

The situation for the Leogane media is devastating, according
to Saint Fort. Many local journalists are homeless, and most of them sleep in
makeshift hovels, he told CPJ. Saint Fort is also the Leogane-based
correspondent for Radio Metropole and Voice of America.

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Jean Roland Chery, a Haitain journalist now living in the United States, has served as CPJ’s consultant to Haiti. He wrote extensively on the 2010 earthquake.